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When talking about fitness, one aspects seems to always be prevalent: fat loss. When figuring what to eat to achieve optimal fat loss and the best results, fat and carbs seem to be the enemy with a high focus on protein. Knowing about all macronutrients and understand which role they play upon consumption can lead to optimized fat loss and performance.

1) Meal Prep!

The first simple tip for fat loss is simply meal prepping. For those unaware, meal prepping is a practice in which large quantities of food are prepared at once and are consumed throughout the week. By preparing large quantities of healthy foods, your fridge will be stocked foods that keep you on track with your health and fitness goals. You will avoid asking yourself “what am I eating today?!” and simply already have your meals for 2-4 consecutive days mapped out. You’ll be less inclined to go out to eat and avoid potentially overindulging in chips, tacos and margaritas. Meal prepping is also cost effective and time efficient.

Get on board!

If you consume carbohydrates a rice cooker should definitely be in your kitchen! A rice cooker eliminates the guesswork with cooking rice by shutting off once it is complete. The Black and Decker Rice cooker is cost effective and gets the job done. Check it out below:

2) Fill up on vegetables

This is classic advice- but it’s true. If you’re aiming for fat loss, filling up on carbs and fat will not effectively get you where you want to be. Vegetables are high in fiber and will keep you fuller longer. Shoot for dark, leafy greens such as Brussels Sprouts, broccoli, and asparagus. They’re low in carbs and delicious when roasted!

The following vegetables can be roasted at 400F for 30 minutes:

Beets

Zucchini

Asparagus

Bell Pepper

Onion

Squash

Sweet Potato

Carrots

Brussels Sprouts

Shallots

Garlic

Eggplant

White Potato

Combine any of the above vegetable combinations on a large baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil and enjoy!

3) Carb Cycle & leverage Ketogenic State!

This is a more advanced tactic, but let’s break it down.

One massive diet trend in early 2017 is known as carb cycling. Essentially, the preferred fuel for the human body is carbohydrates. As delicious as carbs may be, they have a close relationship with insulin and the metabolism. They’ll provide you a burst of energy that allows for increased performance. If this energy isn’t used, however, it will typically lead to fat storage.

The idea behind carb cycling is that you’re manipulating where your body is getting energy from. Once your body is depleted with the preferred fuel source (carbs), it’ll turn to using the stored fat cells for energy. This is known as a ketogenic state.

The human body will typically adapt to the input- whether that be low carb and high fat, or high carb and low fat. This is an amazing phenomena, however it will typically lead to plateaued fat loss and performance. By changing the amount of carbs that are being consumed, you will be able to achieve continual progress week after week.

Reduce carbohydrate intake on days that you’re not exercising. Carbs are fuel. Are you driving your car today?

4) Cardio on an empty stomach optimizes fat burn

Just a disclaimer, this one is controversial. Ketosis is a proven method to leverage the body’s fat sources as fuel. The idea behind fasted cardio is that there are no carbs (primary energy source) in your body, and therefore the body will utilize the fat deposits to fuel the workout. Warning: fasted cardio is slightly more exhausting than traditional running. Keep the fat burning in the back of your mind when you’re doing this!

5) Keep the protein high!

Protein is your friend. For males, it is recommended to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight, and females are roughly .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. On average, the typical person in the US gets .3 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That’s low. Unless you’re going out of the way to get protein, you’re not getting enough.

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” –Thomas Edison

Good nutrition is the key to living a long and healthy life. Some of the most common chronic diseases and leading causes of death in the United States today include heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and overweight/obesity. Altering your eating habits to include more balanced meals and wholesome foods can have many long-term benefits, primarily in decreasing risk for chronic diseases. ‘Nutrition’ is a vague term and has a different meaning among different groups of people. Let’s start with a basic overview of what nutrition is and why it is important to our health.

Everyone has different dietary needs dependent on age, gender, height, weight, physical activity level, and health status. For example, a college athlete who exercises for four hours a day will have different energy requirements than a pregnant 30-year old woman who will have different requirements than a 70-year old man bedridden post-surgery. However, regardless of one’s energy needs, everyone can improve their eating habits using MyPlate, a healthy eating tool created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). MyPlate uses a simple dinner plate to incorporate all five food groups into a meal: grains, dairy, protein, fruits, and vegetables.

Listed below are ways to make small changes to your “plate” in order to eat healthier.

Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.

Make half your grains whole grains.

Switch to low-fat or fat-free dairy products.

Vary your protein.

The MyPlate website takes you through each of the five food groups and discusses the daily recommendations for each food group across different age groups, what a serving size from each group looks like, and examples of foods from each group. MyPlate is an incredibly useful tool in planning and preparing daily meals and can be used in meal-prep for a variety of special diets.

The Bakesplit is a silicone baking sheet divider that is used to partition baking sheets to prepare multiple types of food at the same time. Not only can the Bakesplit allow you to cook your entire meal using just one baking sheet, it can also save you lots of time making meals for the family and preparing meals for the week ahead. Remember – if you want to cook two different items on the same sheet, both foods must have the same cooking/baking temperature. Listed below are applications of the Bakesplit that can help you reach your nutritional needs.

Protein and vegetable meals – Cook an entire meal using just one baking sheet. You can throw some chicken, beef, or fish on one side of the sheet and some cut-up squash, zucchini, potatoes, asparagus, or any other vegetable of your choice to cook on the other side.

Different flavors of marinated chicken – During Sunday meal-preps, you can marinate different flavors of chicken for the week without having the flavors mix on the baking sheet. The same can work if you want to marinate different types of protein (a mix of meat and fish, for example) or different vegetable medleys.

Foods with different allergens – With the Bakesplit you can cook foods containing different allergens and prevent cross-contamination. Using the marinated chicken example from above, let’s say you want to marinate a few chicken breasts in a teriyaki sauce for yourself, but someone else in your family can not consume teriyaki since it contains soy and he or she is allergic. You can marinate the remaining chicken breasts using non soy-containing ingredients, and the Bakesplit will ensure that the teriyaki sauce does not cross over into non-soy territory.

Gluten-free and “gluten-full” foods – Going along with not mixing allergens, let’s say one person in your family has celiac disease or is gluten intolerant. Cooking gluten-free foods in addition to non-gluten-free foods takes double the time. With the Bakesplit, you can cut your time in half by preparing the same food but making one version of it gluten-free. This is especially useful when baking desserts. For example, you can make regular brownies and gluten-free brownies (using gluten-free flour and gluten-free vanilla extract) and not have to worry about traces of gluten crossing over to the non-gluten side of the baking sheet.

Meals for different members of the family (parents and kids) – The parents want chicken for dinner and the kids want chicken nuggets. Instead of wasting time preparing both meals separately, you can cook chicken on one side of the baking sheet and cook chicken nuggets on the other side. Additionally, let’s say one of your kids wants regular fries and your other child wants sweet potato fries. The Bakesplit makes this simple. Place the regular fries on one side of a baking sheet, the sweet potato fries on the other side, the Bakesplit divider in the middle, and you are all set.

You can think of additional uses of the Bakesplit while keeping your individual nutritional needs in mind. Besides being time-efficient, the Bakesplit allows you to cook multiple types of food for multiple people at the same time without worrying about cross-contamination. Using educational tools such as MyPlate along with the Bakesplit offers greater flexibility and options for everyday dietary needs and restrictions.

Great bodies are made in the kitchen, not the gym.
As any health-conscious individual knows, diet and nutrition are the cornerstone of any health and fitness related practice. The inventor of the Bakesplit would religiously meal prep to save time and stay healthy, but found that there was room for improvement.

As the meal prepping community knows, consuming food that was cooked in a large batch can get exhausting on the second or third day of consumption. Dieting requires discipline- but that doesn’t mean that it needs to suck.

By having a baking sheet divider, meal preppers would be able to bake multiple flavors of chicken breast on the same sheet- Leading to an improved meal prepping experience, and reducing urges for snacking and indulgent food.

Outside of simply baking protein varieties, the Bakesplit could also be used to bake a filling, healthy meal consisting of baked chicken breasts and sweet potato while prevent fluids from spilling over into each baking sheet. Here are some great meal combinations that take your health practice to the next level:

Chicken and beets (400F for 32 minutes)

Salmon and broccoli (400F for 15-25 minutes)

Pork tenderloin and zucchini (400F for 15-20 minutes)

Shrimp and asparagus (400F for 15-20 minutes)

As far as nutrition is concerned, the USDA recommends moderately active people under 50 consume 2.5 to 3 cups of vegetables per day.

Per a study from the Center For Disease Control, roughly 8.9% of people in the United States are meeting their recommended vegetable intake. Be honest with yourself, where is your vegetable consumption?

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When compared to boiling vegetables, baking will retain the most nutrients and antioxidants. By using a Bakesplit to supplement your baked dishes with vegetables, the following health benefits will be easier to obtain:

Reduction of cancer risk and heart disease

Lower Cholesterol

Anti-inflammatory benefits

High fiber (important for high protein diets)

Improving bone health from

Antioxidants for flushing toxins

Lowering blood pressure

Immune system support

Preserving vision health

As we’ve already mentioned, dieting and fitness require discipline. The Bakesplit will allow you to create flavor variety to give yourself a psychological advantage when it comes to dieting. Supplementing anything baked with vegetables will now easier than ever.

There is no time like now for being healthy. If you need a little incentive for eating healthier meals, let BakeSplit help you. This silicone divider makes keeping food separate when cooking, the easiest. Foodies love to use this new cooking tool. You can put your protein on one side and your veg on the other. By not having carbs at night, you can lose unwanted fat on your body as your body goes into ketosis. By eating fewer carbohydrates, the ketosis way makes your body burn fat instead of the carbs. When you eat a lot of carbs, your body will burn those instead of the fat on your body. Portion control is one of the easiest ways to help the body go into ketosis.

Portion Control

BakeSplit allows you to make only enough food for you to eat. You can do this on a single baking sheet. You can make more if you want to, but let BakeSplit help you be more in control of how much you eat for dinner. Your protein of fish, chicken, bean recipe or steak on one side will then give you the space for an awesome vegetable recipe. Single sheet baking is the upcoming rage in cooking.

A Little Bit Of Beef

Beef has Iron and Vitamin B6 among many other vitamins and minerals that help you be strong. How much beef you eat every week will depend on the way you eat. If you are on a Paleo diet, you will eat a lot of beef. If you are on a well-balanced diet, then you might eat beef four times a week, and then rotate chicken, fish, and beans as your daily protein source. There is something so delicious about a couple of ounces of grass-fed filet mignon, or a nice portion of grass-fed sirloin. Who does not love, besides vegetarians, an amazing grass-fed burger? Incorporating beef into your diet helps give you essential minerals and vitamins, your body can not make on its own.

Easy Filet Recipe

This is a single serving so multiply by how many people you have invited for dinner.

Filet Recipe

8 oz. of the freshest filet mignon

1 tablespoon of grass-fed butter

Dash of salt

Dash of pepper

10 asparagus stalks

1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Get your pan ready with the BakeSplit. On a plate, roll the asparagus in the olive oil then place on the right side of the BakeSplit. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a medium saucepan melt butter on high heat. With tongs place your filet in the butter and let it sit for 2 and ½ minutes. Make sure you have a timer. You do not want to overcook this delicious beef. Then flip the filet and let it sear on the other side for two and ½ minutes. Make sure you have a timer. You just want to lock the top and bottom so that when you cook in the oven the juices stay in the meat. Immediately transfer the filet to the left side of the BakeSplit pan. So now you have the filet on one side and the asparagus on the other. Sprinkle the filet with salt and pepper. Pop the baking sheet in the oven.

The least amount of cooking time is about 6 and ½ minutes for a filet. You can stick a thermometer in the meat and make sure it registers 122 degrees for safety. The meat will be pink at this temperature. You want to set the timer. Don’t get impatient. Now if you want a more well-done meat, cook a little bit longer. If you have never eaten good quality meat that looks pink. Have no fear. It is delicious. If you overdo the meat it will get tough and not be so delicious. Everyone has their taste. After about 6 and ½ minutes take meat out and serve on a nice plate. Use your tongs to place the meat and veg on the plate. Serve immediately and enjoy.

BakeSplit Dinner Preparation As Easy As Pie

Simply put your main dish on one side of the BakeSplit and once the meat has cooked add your vegetables at the proper time. This way your entire meal will be warm and ready. Treat yourself like a king by having your dinner the right temperature.

Add Your Best Cooking Ideas To Single Sheet Baking

With the new year and your very own BakeSplit, the slate is clean. You can fill in each side of your single sheet with whatever foods you want. Your chicken recipes, beef recipes, and fish recipes just got easier. Your moms veg recipe will fit right alongside your main course. BakeSplit is not just for savory foods. Cakes, pies, blackberry crumble squares or your own recipe. Your baking options have just gotten bigger.

Baking a cake with two or more flavors just got easier. With BakeSplit you can divide your pan into two or three sections to make a delicious multi-flavored cake. The Bakesplit makes the process quick and easy. Here is an easy recipe for a Chocolate/Vanilla Cake using BakeSplit.

Chocolate/Vanilla Cake

Vanilla Cake

2 cups of the best unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup of vegetable oil

1 extra tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 ¼ cups of white sugar cane sugar

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 cup of whole milk

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of real (not imitation) vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in all the remaining ingredients. Mix everything with a simple electric beater. Place the BakeSplit into the center of a 16 inch by 11 inch by 1 inch baking sheet. Grease the baking sheet with the tablespoon of vegetable oil. You probably won’t need all the tablespoon. Just make sure the whole sheet is well greased. Pour the batter into the left side of the baking sheet. Smooth the batter out and tap it so it is as even as possible. Let sit while you make the chocolate side of the cake. This is what it will look like when the cakes are done. Below is the Chocolate Cake recipe.

Chocolate Cake

1 ¾ cup of unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ½ cup of sugar

¾ cup of powdered cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup of vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 cup of whole milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

Mix together in a large bowl the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then mix everything else in the bowl will a regular electric beater. Mix until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the other side of the baking sheet with the BakeSplit and vanilla batter. Tap pan and make sure the two sides are as even as you can get them.

Place baking sheet into the oven. Bake about 35 minutes. Check the cake. The top should be dry. Stick a toothpick or knife into each cake by the BakeSplit. If the toothpick or knife comes out clean, the cakes are ready. Cook another ten to fifteen minutes if the toothpick is not clean. Every oven is different, so you just want to make sure that the cake does not dry out. When the cake is ready. Let the cake cool before frosting. You can put the cakes in the fridge to drop the temperature.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

½ cup of soften butter

4 cups of fresh confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons of real vanilla extract

4 tablespoons of whole milk

1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream

Directions

Take the butter out of the fridge and let it soften at room temperature. When the butter is soft combine the butter, vanilla, and whipping cream and beat with an electric beater. Start pouring the confectioner sugar into the butter batter. Watch as you are beating the sugar in. Slowly add the milk tablespoons. Only add enough so that your frosting is smooth. Judge as your beating the mixture. You also do not have to put in all the sugar as well. When you start seeing a smooth consistency start tasting the frosting so that you like it. You want to make sure the frosting is thick, smooth, and spreadable at the same time.

Now that the cakes are cooled, and the frosting is made. It is time to put the cake together. If you have a baking rack flip the cake over onto the rack, if not flip them out onto a large working area or plate. You can measure and cut the cake size you want or use them as is. Place one flavor on a plate and frost the top of the cake. You want about a quarter inch of frosting. Then place the next flavor of cake on top of the frosted cake. Make sure you match up the corners. Now frost away. You want to smooth the frosting out on top of the cake. You also want to smooth frosting out on the sides. When the cake is fully covered with frosting you can decorate as you like. Serve on nice looking plates and enjoy.

Thank you for reading, liking, subscribing, and commenting. If you do not have a BakeSplit yet, you can purchase it here on the website at our shopor click the link below to amazon.